G'Day!

San Diego to Melbourne

2005-12-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

Everything is left to the last minute. Packing, paying bills, house cleaning. Broken up only by a lunch of Mexican food at Carmen’s in the company of Robin, the pet whisperer we bring out from Long Island to care for the Poodles and the cats. He also acts as the chauffer to the Commuter Terminal of the San Diego airport for our 8:30PM flight to Los Angeles. Is Miranda trying my patience or is she really serious about taking our entire luggage and heading straight through the security checkpoint and onto the plane? Let’s go to the ticket counter first, dear. Its always a brief flight to LAX and we actually get something to drink! This has not been the case for few years. We have to make our way out of the Terminal 4 and into the Bradley International to link with QANTAS, and it hits us. Well perhaps not an actual body blow, but we are weighed down. By carry-on luggage! Wine, laptop, Christmas presents, and one backpack of essentials; at least that are Miranda’s excuse. How far do we have to carry all this, time to get some food – and rest! We had already been given our boarding passes for the QANTAS flight by American Airlines in San Diego, so after sharing a bowl of Chinese wonton soup we head to the south Departure gate, only to be told we need new boarding passes from QANTAS. Which just happens to have its ticket counters at the other end of the building. It then takes a seemingly endless time to get the new passes. Why is all this necessary? Have I noted before just how poor the communication is between American Airlines and QANTAS? They may be part of the One World Alliance, but I doubt that they exist on the same world. OK, new passes in hand we go smoothly through security only to find that our gate is at the opposite end of the terminal. And there is all this hand luggage. The only saving grace is that Miranda has her ticket marked as RUBY OneWorld – so she gets early boarding, and I tag along. As this flight is to Melbourne we know to expect something in the realm of 15 hours, quite a bit longer than our usual direct trip to Sydney; actually turns out to be about fourteen and a half. But once I see the guy opposite me with his oxygen mask on I begin to wonder if he knows something we don’t! I never asked the guy sitting by the window in our row what he thought of it. Forty years old, and his first flight out of the USA. And other passengers are wearing oxygen masks! Easiest thing to do is ignore it all and watch movies. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The World’s Fastest Indian, and Four Brothers.

2005-11-22T17:41:00.000-08:00

Australia Bound OK, so this eBlog really does not get too much attention unless we are on the road (or in the air) to Australia. Good news, its about to happen. What? The in the air bit, then we'll get to the wine bit. We don't leave until December 1st, but don't say you weren't warned. As usual its all in the guise of attendance at the Australasian Society of Immunology annual meeting. This time its in Melbourne and that means we have a choice of wine regions to visit. I've decided that we should go south to Mornington Peninsula and taste some Pinot Noir. But for the diehards we will be traveling by overnight train to Adelaide to check out our little house in the Barossa Valley. Yes that's it in the picture - what would I do without Google Earth. While we are there I guess we might as well taste some Aussie Shiraz.

2004-12-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

Barossa - Adelaide Today we pack our bags, clean up the B&B and head out to Adelaide. But first we need to visit Wayne Dutschke to get a couple of bottles of his wonderful Muscat and to sign his barrel of fortified Shiraz. We also check out the hole in his front yard that suddenly appeared after recent heavy rains; its apparently the shaft of an old gold mine. Then it is on into Adelaide and lunch at the National Wine Centre of Australia. After a quick tour around the exhibits John drops us at Pacific International Apartments and heads out to the airport and home to Brisbane. Thanks for all the hard work putting such a great few days together, Big Brother!

2004-12-16T13:24:00.000-08:00

Barossa - Day 5 There are only two vineyards on the itinerary today, but what a day! First is Hutton Vale, named over 150 years ago. A mixed production farm making jams and chutneys as well as wine. The owners, John and Jan Angus, provide great hospitality and a tasting of excellent wines. The viticulture practices, including use of a large fan to combat frost on the shiraz vines, are explained by John during a trip through the vineyard in the company of the family dogs. The second vineyard we visit is Heathvale, another old property dating back to the 1860s, that is now owned by Trevor and Faye March. Trevor is clearly an enthusiastic vigneron, and it shows as he takes us on a walk through the vines and explains the ages of the vines and the different trellising methods he is using to gain optimal flavors in the grapes. His wines, especially the 2002 Shiraz, are wonderful. On the way back to Tanunda we stop in at the Eden Valley Pub for a pizza and some Irvine merlot. Later that evening dinner is at Salters where we finish off the Heathvale 2002 Chardonnay and the 2002 Shiraz kindly provided by Trevor. It’s a pity that the meal is spoiled by air conditioning that is blasting out super cold air, and coffee that takes forever to get to our table.

2004-12-15T13:23:00.000-08:00

Barossa - Day 4 Today Ngaire and Chris head back to Dubbo, and Miranda wants to check out Real Estate in Tanunda which leaves John and I to do wineries. First on the list is a fairly ordinary range of wines at Elderton. Next is Bethany Wines which boasts a great view from the cellar door, and some interesting aged Rieslings. However the best range of wines comes next at Liebichwein. These are wines made in the old style with big, bold tannins. They will need years to settle down. Last is another adequate but not exciting range of wines from St Hallett Winery, and then its time for lunch at the Krondorf Café. Dinner that night is at Barr Vinum, and a taste off between Dutschke 2002 St Jakobi Shiraz and Summerfield 2002 Shiraz.

2004-12-14T13:18:00.000-08:00

Barossa - Day 3 First on the agenda today is a trip out to the infant winery of rising star Troy Kalleske. John has been able to organize a private tasting with this amazingly young, but after being anointed by Robert Parker, now internationally known winemaker. The winery is only several years old and much of the operation is still being done in Troy’s brother’s big tin shed. As we walk toward the shed some very serious barking emanates from the side of the house. Its Tyson, a Tyrolean Shepard, who is a monster of a dog; but not in the Wine Dogs book. Troy says he friendly and he’s released to bound up and greet us. Through Troy’s generosity we taste through some amazing examples of Shiraz and Grenache. The Grenache wines are wonderful spicy wines, almost Christmas cake in a glass, and the Shiraz is certainly outstanding. The top of the line, the 2003 Johann Georg Shiraz, comes from vines that go back to 1875 and some of the fruit used to go into the greatest Australian wine Penfolds Grange. By the amount of drooling he does, Tyson seems to envy our enjoyment of the wines. Before we leave I ask Troy if he would autograph a magnum of his 2003 Shiraz for me. Thanks Troy! That bottle is going into the cellar for a loooong time. The next winery is Torbreck Vintners. One of the most impressive things about Torbreck is that almost all of their wines are available for tasting, unlike a number of wineries who hold back their top line wines. The Torbreck wines, especially the 2003 Descendent, are very impressive. Their icon wine, Run Rig, is outstanding, but for my money it is pipped at the post by the Descendent. The next winery is Veritas where we are served by Mrs Binder. The first wine she serves us is the 2004 Mrs Binder Barossa Riesling. It’s a wine that the advertising blurb says was specially made for her and I would imagine that she deserves it. When most people would be retired she is busy serving wines quietly but effectively to anyone who walks in the door. Good-onya Mrs Binder! Lunch is a Maggie Beer’s little establishment overlooking a small lake. The food is quite excellent but we have to rush through it as we have to meet Matt Wenk to taste his Smidge wines. Matt is also winemaker for Two Hands and so we head out there but we arrive late and are told he has gone on to the Branson winery, where he is also the winemaker. Branson is also a little hard to find but after wandering around, or maybe its through Seppeltsfield, we see the fermenter shed on stilts that we were told to look for. The tasting with Matt is one of the most interesting experiences we have during our Barossa trip. We taste his bottled wines, especially his 2002 Zinfandel, The Tardy, and then head into the barrel shed. This is where it gets educational. Matt has 2004 Zinfandel in French oak barrels from Langhorne Creek that was fermented using different yeasts. The wines are completely different, ripe fruits of blackberry/blueberry in one case, more subdued spices of nutmeg in the other. But the wine to watch for is the 2004 from Barossa fruit. It apparently will be called The Donald. This wine is more typical of zinfandel, spicy and fragrant, and covers the palate with ripe, intense fruit flavors. Matt also lets us taste the Two Hands 2003 Ares shiraz from barrel as well as its sister wine the Aphrodite, made from Cabernet sauvignon. The 2003 and 2004 Aphrodite are outstanding wines. The 2003 Ares is one of the best wines I’ve tasted. Many thanks to Matt for a great tasting, and the bottle of The Tardy! The last winery for the day is Thorn-Clarke. Miranda obviously does not want to destroy the memory of the Smidge/Two Hands wines and stays in the car while the rest of us go through their line-up. The best wine is clearly the 2002 William Randell Shiraz. Dinner is at 1918, and this time everyone is ready for wine. First up is The Doctor Sparking Red from The Willows Vineyard. Entrees are with Smidge Wines 2002 The Tardy Zinfandel. Main meals are over a comparison of Greenock Creek 2001 Alices Shiraz and Torbreck 2003 The Struie.

2004-12-13T13:18:00.000-08:00

Barossa - Day 2 The first winery on our second day is Kellermeister Wines, also home to Trevor Jones wines; a father/son operation. We are a little bit early and have to wait while the staff set up the tasting room and cash register. Once all is ready we taste through a very diverse array of wines. Some are excellent like the 2003 Trevor Jones Vintage Virgin Chardonnay, while the Pink Mink is, hmmm, interesting! All in all we taste some 16 different wines. Spitting is certainly the order of the day for those of us who are not embarrassed to do so. The next visit is with winemaker Wayne Dutschke. My brother John is a great admirer of Dutschke Wines and has asked Wayne to show us his current line. It would be little exaggeration to say that this visit is a highlight of our Barossa wine experience. It is very obvious that Wayne Dutschke not only loves to talk about his wines and wine in general, but that he also makes outstanding wines. Its clear Wayne is serious about us tasting his wines when he pulls out a set of the largest glasses I’ve ever seem. It immediately occurs to me that if I put my nose in there its very likely to get lost and never find its way out! His two shiraz wines, the 2002 St. Jakobi and the 2002 Oscar Semmler, are intense and seamless, and among the best we will taste in the next five days. We also get to taste a range of barrel samples of both dry and fortified wines. It’s a great shame that these wonderful fortified wines are made in such limited quantities. I notice that Miranda is not spitting anything out at all but by the end of the tasting she is doing an awful lot of smiling and swaying. An interesting sidelight to the Dutschke experience is the invitation to sample a coffee made from beans that have been soaked in port. Its still in the experimental stages but there is a taste of port there. After such great hospitality we are pleased that Wayne accepts John’s invitation to join us for lunch at 1918, a well known bistro and grill in Tanunda, where we finish off those opened bottles of Dutschke wine. The food is impressive enough for us to reserve a table for dinner on Tuesday night. Rockford is the next stop where John is a member of the Stonewallers which allows us to get a more private tasting in the Stonewall Cellar. The buildings at Rockford really are stonewalls and very quaint. The smell of burnt ash from the fireplace in the Stonewall Cellar would also be quite quaint under any other circumstances but we are here to taste wines. I come away somewhat less impressed with Rockford and their wines than I thought I would be. Glaetzer is also not as impressive as expected. This might be due to the first wine that we are shown, a Sparkling Pinot Noir, being corked. Last winery on the list for today is Turkey Flat Vineyards. This winery is just outside Tanunda and has some of the oldest shiraz vines in the Barossa. Its no wonder then that their Shiraz is sold out, so we try some very tasty Cabernet Sauvignon instead. Miranda doesn’t taste anything here or at Glaetzer; I think she is still savoring the taste of Dutschke Muscat. Dinner is at La Buona Vita. Pizza and yes, you guessed correctly, no one has the palate left for any more wine.

2004-12-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

Barossa - Day 1 Our first day of wine tasting. We are all little groggy from the night before but breakfast is a great help and the wines of the Barossa await. I’m not going to provide any detailed notes on individual wines here, just general impressions. If you want more information you can look either at my Shiraz eBlog or at my Tasting Notes eBlog. First up is the ultra modern Two Hands Wines. The most impressive wines we taste here are the perfumed 2003 Lily’s Garden (a McLaren Vale shiraz) and the spicy 2003 Sophie’s Garden (Padtheway shiraz). Next is Seppeltsfield winery. Here taste some of their sparking shiraz. The Australian answer to champagne? Possibly not, but a uniquely Aussie drop of plonk. We’ll taste a number of these over the next few days, some of which are very, very good. Seppelts gives us two to sample their 2002 and their 1994 Show Sparkling. The latter is clearly the better wine. Very earthy, with characters of the barnyard, but soft and elegant in the mouth. But we are here for the fortified wines and so we move into the tasting of the Rare series of Muscat, Tokay, and Tawny and the 1983 Para Tawny. Miranda is in her element here, throwing wine everywhere as she tries to get every last nuance of flavor from her vigorous swirling of wine in the ridiculously small bowled glasses that hold the wines. Money and wine quickly change hands. The next few wineries were not on our planned itinerary but its good that they were included. First is Barossa Valley Estate for a light lunch and, well OK, perhaps just a taste or two. The wine that stands out here is their 1999 Sparking Shiraz. Outstanding! It is considerably better that the Seppelts wines and we immediately get a bottle to have with our meat and cheese lunch. Next is Gnadenfrei Estate. Here we taste the 2003 St Michael’s Shiraz. It’s a big blackberry jammy, tannic monster that’s 15.3% alcohol that will need quite a few years to soften. While you wait you could drink its little brother the 2003 Shiraz/Grenache mix which is not quite as big, but just as jammy. Next door Viking Vineyard is closed so we speed off to Heritage Estate where we are greeted at the cellar door by the cellar cat. Well its not so much a greeting as a roll of the head so that her chin can be scratched while she continues to sleep. Kaesler is next but it’s a quick visit as the air conditioners generate such cold blasts of air that its uncomfortable being in the tasting room let alone actually tasting wine. The last winery for the day is The Willows Vineyard where we want to taste The Bonesetter but its all sold out. However their Cabernet Sauvignon begins a discussion that lasts for days. The wine smells overwhelmingly of eucalyptus and it is explained to us that the grapes for the wine came from a vineyard surrounded on three sides by eucalyptus trees. Its not the minty character that many people find in young Cabernet wines but we look for it in every one we taste from that moment on. Wine will do that to you. Back in Tanunda we adjourn to the Tanunda Pub for dinner. Perhaps not unexpectedly no one wants any wine with dinner. Again not unexpectedly I go for the German sausages and when it comes with an unexpected pork chop it remains uneaten. Did I misread the menu, or did I really drink too much wine.

2004-12-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

Sydney-Adelaide-Tanunda I don’t sleep well due to the street noise. The next morning Miranda tells me how well she slept because she used her ear plugs and why didn’t I use my plugs when she told me to do so! Still it’s a sunny day and so after breakfast in the hotel we take a walk around the local shops and admire a statue of Captain James Cook, finally get some money from an ATM and then take the Gemini shuttle bus on Toad’s Wild Ride to the Domestic Terminal. This time its a young guy doing the driving, possibly German, but certainly fantasizing that he’s on some Grand Prix circuit somewhere. The next leg of our trip is to Adelaide to meet up with my brother John and cousin Ngaire and her husband Chris. The first few days of this vacation are to be wine soaked and so we waste very little time in getting to the first winery, Penfolds Magill. This is a vineyard situated in suburban Adelaide that does tastings and winery tours and has a restaurant. We taste through the wines on offer but there is nothing that catches our attention. The others are more interested in food and so its off to find some. We decide to search out the restaurant where we will meet a bunch of other wine lovers for dinner that evening. Its not open for business but they do let us leave our wines there, rather than drag them around in a hot car for the rest of the day. Fortunately there is a little shop nearby that provides us with some sandwiches and coffee. We have a couple of hours to kill before the dinner so we head off to the shops at Hyde Park to idle away the time. Getting back to The Sauce for dinner is a bit of an adventure in itself and we get lost more than once. But fortunately we make it and spend several hours in great company eating fine food and drinking our way through almost 20 excellent wines. The details of the event can be found here and here. As the witching hour of 10pm approaches we have to say our goodbyes and head out to Tanunda. It is somewhat of a miracle that we eventually arrive as we seem to be lost for most of the way. John has organized two very quaint little cottages for us. He, Miranda and I will stay in the palatial Clara’s Cottage while Ni and Chris will stay in the smaller Elsie’s Cottage. Both have been well stocked with breakfast foods, very thoughtful in our case. The decanter of port is perhaps a little excessive. But I guess it goes with the candles, the frog that’s full of bath bubbles and the two person spa bath! Of course there is no phone line and so no access to the internet and so no possibility to post timely updates to any of my eBlogs. But what else is new with these real-time updates that are always late.

2004-12-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

Honolulu Airport Hotel to Sydney The HAH is much a used and abused hotel, but provides a good nights rest, and a more than adequate breakfast looking out across their pool area. We take the HAH shuttle to the airport. At the airport we check-in with QANTAS only to find that there is no Australian visa for Miranda. There should be one, its done automatically by American Airlines. OneWorld alliance partners? Do these two airlines actually talk to each other? We are ticketed, and then told to wait while the visa is issued. Certainly good service, well we are going Business Class (the top on the pile as far as QANTAS in concerned for this leg of the trip). Its done in minutes, which seems like a good sign. The fight to Oz is in the nose of the plane in Row 3, on the right-hand side of the aircraft. Its about a 10 hour flight, over the International Date Line. Enough time for three movies, two meals and sampling of a few fairly ordinary wines. The steward notices Miranda’s John Lennon T-shirt and tells her he had him on the plane at one time. Probably not the phrasing he was looking for but it gives them a topic of conversation for the rest of the flight. We arrive into sunny Sydney at 7pm on December 10th to a downpour. One thing about being in Business Class you get off quickly and so we get to Immigration fast only to find that the visa Miranda was given in Hawaii has a problem and she has to accompany officials while I head off to collect the luggage. Another perk of flying Business is that your bags come off bloody fast as well. We could be out of here in record time! Miranda appears just as I load up the bags and we head to Customs where she declares several bags of spices and chilies. They get more than the once over, with comments of “You can buy these here in Australia”. In the end she gets to keep them. It would be nice to find an ATM that works and we try three but none can process our request for the mighty Aussie dollar “at this time”. Fortunately we have Euros left from our recent trip to Europe and they are quickly exchanged. Miranda has organized a room at the Gemini Hotel in Randwick, so we call for their shuttle and do as instructed and go to Bay 24 to wait for the white van to arrive. We don’t have long to wait before it pulls up and the original Aussie battler jumps out with a white bath towel thrown over his head and shoulders as protection from the rain. He hurries us to get our carry-on bags and ourselves into the van while he gets the bigger bags. One gets thrown onto the seat next to me, the other onto the front seat, and we are off. He seems to want to have a conversation, but with all the rattling and road noise and his soft voice its hard to make out exactly what he’s saying. And so after a while he turns on the radio. The Gemini looks like a very nice hotel with a very modern lobby. We head up to room 403. Miranda enters and stops almost immediately and I think that she has been stunned by the elegance of the room but no she just reached the limit of the room’s dimensions. Small is not quite the right description. In addition the room overlooks Belmore Road and its pretty regular traffic. Without any air-conditioning we have to keep the window open to get some air circulation, but I’m too tired to worry about it and fall onto the bed. At some point Miranda mumbles something about ear plugs and I tell her there are some in the bag of goodies I got from the QANTAS steward.

2004-12-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

Down Under to The Barossa Valley On our way! We leave San Diego Commuter Terminal and the Poodles behind at 2:30pm, flying American Eagle to LAX. It is always fun to fly in a seemingly unsafe twin engine plane with a steward who runs through the safety instructions in a rapid nasal voice that no one understands. And then find that as you approach LAX a much larger plane is off to the right hand side and at the same altitude! Fortunately it stays the same distance away throughout our approach into LAX. And then we get more instructions that no one understands! Time for a snack at Chilli’s. The Buffalo Wings are HOT, and not wings anyway. The next flight is American Airlines to Honolulu at 6:30pm – 1st Class, no less! Flying time 5 hours and 42 minutes but with time change we arrive a little after 10pm, well rested after dinner and a movie (A Shark’s Tale). And a pretty damn good chardonnay that I never even got the name of. I have to learn to just grab the bottle, or at least ask! Ah, Honolulu and humidity! We share our shuttle bus to the Honolulu Airport Hotel (HAH) with an Australian girl returning home to Melbourne. She had just spent a few weeks in Denver helping a friend through the birth of her first baby. What else are Aussies for if not to be mates?

2004-10-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

Router Returned Its baaaack ! But whether it works is an entirely different story. Cables will be connected, attempts will be made to establish old links. Watch this space for further details.

2004-09-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Internet Router Wrecks Havoc on eBlog An Asante router, one of the few capable of handling internet traffic to and from both Mac and PC, was found to have mysteriously ceased to function last week. "I have no idea why it failed" said the owner, Michael Pollard of San Diego, "We returned from Europe, and I was about to post notes on our travels through the Czech Republic and Germany, when we discovered that we could no longer connect both of our computers to the internet". Mr Pollard's said the notes for his eBlog covered some ten days of travel. "Its not just the Europe trip. We will be spending this weekend in Idyllwild at The Art Alliance of Idyllwild's 7th Annual Art Walk and Wine Tasting. The notes on that trip will be delayed also." Exactly when the router would be repaired was unknown. "Its still under warranty so its been sent back to the manufacturer" said Mr Pollard "However they no longer make that model, so we don't know whether it can be repaired".

2004-09-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

Busting Out Lose yourself or find yourself: you have to know what you're travelling for, writes Robert Dessaix. "Not long ago in Paris (where I was travelling to explore a particular kind of emotional landscape I can't find at home) I chanced upon a superb exhibition of photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of my favourites. I was little interested in the technical side to his photography, or in the social realities of Spain in the '30s or Russia in the '50s. I was simply curious to know why I found them so beautiful, despite the utter banality of the moments depicted. (And, God knows, travel is mostly made up of utterly banal moments.) Then it struck me. Like a thief on a bicycle, Cartier-Bresson seizes an instant of self-awareness in his subjects as he passes, or at least an awareness of the unrepeatability of the given moment - a priest hurrying along a country road in full regalia, laughing boys leaping off a wall, ecstatic faces in the crowd at the Coronation - against a timeless, classically structured background. Perhaps that's how we should travel. Perhaps inadvertently Cartier-Bresson hit on the secret of how to fit all those hours, days, even weeks of sitting about on drab railway-stations, in drab hotel-rooms and drab restaurants into a larger picture we will remember as illuminatingly beautiful." MORE->

2004-09-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

Kid From The Bush Finds Her Voice "Van Loon's gritty tale of drugs, despair and teenage runaways is set in a truck stop in the Central West of NSW where the teenage protagonist fries chips, fills the Coke fridge and pie-warmer and hides from the law." MORE-> Hardly the stuff of legend but Dubbo, now that place does ring a bell in my past.

2004-07-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

OK, so lets recap the Connor's Reunion in a little more detail, day by day by day! Thursday 1st July, 2004 Southwest cattle flight to Baltimore and on to Washington, DC. Somehow I just knew there would be something on the internet about the Southwest Airlines boarding procedure reducing paying customers to cattle. I've never liked it. And Miranda never seems to worry about it. Next time I'm taking a cattle prod along; maybe that will fire up her enthusiasm to get aboard early. Fortunately we had to stop in Albuquerque, NM and that allowed us to change our seats for ones closer to the front. Really close to the front! As soon as we had our luggage corralled it was onto a shuttle bus and off to the Embassy Suites in downtown Washington. (Nice choice for a hotel Karlyn!) Too late for any food from Room Service we settled for pizza; I made sure it had sausage, beef sausage!

2004-07-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

July 1-9, 2004. Connor's Family Reunion in Washington, DC, Thomas Jefferson and Monticello, and Sweet Virginia Wine. The post for today is a brief summary of our nine days on the East Coast of the United States. I’ll post more details of individual highlights in the coming days (OK, it will probably take me weeks to get it done, but it is worth waiting for. Isn’t it?) Thursday 1st July, 2004 Southwest cattle flight to Baltimore and on to Washington, DC. Friday 2nd July, 2004 To The National Mall and the Smithsonian Folkways festival. In the evening a little comedy with Capital Steps. Saturday 3rd July National World War II Memorial and the National Museum of Natural History and IN STABIANO, some Italian cuisine and sweet red Burgundy!! Sunday 4th July A little swim on The National Mall, the National Museum of American History, Connor’s Reunion Party and Independence Day Fireworks. Monday 5th July Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Tuesday 6th July A hail and hot welcome into Virginia and Monticello. A little wine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and fire engines! Wednesday 7th July Tours of Monticello, Terry Pratchett, and dinner with friends. (A tour of Terry Pratchett!!) Thursday 8th July Back to DC. But first more history, wine and food. And a black bear! Friday 9th July Home again!

2004-06-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

Exploring Mt. San Jacinto Leaders: Bob Miller and Tim Cass At more than 10,000 feet in elevation, Mt. San Jacinto is the highest peak in the Peninsular Ranges. Its forested upper slopes, with a subalpine community at high elevations, stand in stark contrast with the low desert below in Palm Springs. On the east side of the mountain an aerial tram ascends through a series of life zones in a matter of minutes, beginning amid rabbit brush and creosote, and ending in lodgepole pines. Explore these natural marvels as you tram to the top and hike an easy three to five miles on top. Bring your binoculars for viewing birds, plants and wildlife! Price includes van transportation, lunch, and aerial tram fee. Saturday, June 12; 7 a.m.-7:30 p.m.

2004-05-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

Rumarosa's Round Rocks and Rock Art Leaders: Maria Mitrani and Don Albright Join in on an all-day adventure to Baja California's La Rumarosa to learn about the area's geology and rock art. Located in northern Sierra Juarez, encounter the geology of the intriguing lava-capped mountains and visit the local lime kiln. Price includes a meal, drinks, snacks, Tecate Brewery tour, and bus transportation. Saturday, May 15, 2004; 8 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Miranda and I have been on several excursions into Mexico as part of the San Diego Natural History Museum’s program of Adult Classes/Field Trips. Many of these are actually run through Andiamo (“The Peninsula of Baja California is the home and passion of our guides and naturalists.”) and guided by Maria Mitrani and members of her family. Depending upon the trip additional guides with specific knowledge may accompany the group. On this trip was Don Albright, a former geologist with 45 years experience in Baja geology/geography, much of which was imparted to us on this trip; but more on that later. As is usual for these excursions, we began in the car park of the Natural History Museum waiting on the bus to arrive from Mexico. Once on aboard we can sit back and relax with coffee and Mexican sweet bread (no not sweet breads or thymus, but a form of pastry) as the bus heads to the border. We cross at San Ysidro, just outside Tijuana. Instead of heading south into Baja we travel east along the border on Mexico 2 to Tecate. Tecate is the oldest of the border towns, and like many virtually straddles what is the busiest border in the world. Our first stop is at the local market in the center of town where Miranda and I buy a hand woven hammock to hang in our newly landscaped garden. Then it is off to the Tecate Brewery to try some beer. Tecate beer was first brewed here in the 1940’s. In 1955 Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Montezuma acquired the Tecate brewery. Known as Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A. de C.V. or FEMSA, the company is the largest beverage company of Mexico and Latin America, and the Tecate Brewery is just one of its six breweries. After a tour of the facilities we are invited to lunch and to drink as much Tecate, Tecate Light, Carta Blanca, Superior, Sol, Dos Equis Lager, Dos Equis Ambar, Indio, Bohemia, and Noche Buena as we like. This is an offer too good to pass up and Ted heads straight for the bar, on the pretext that he will find us a table while Miranda and I get the food. We get to try Sol, Dos Equis Lager, and Dos Equis Ambar before we have to again board the bus. The beers were certainly quite drinkable, but the most impressive aspect is the high tech approach to consumerism. To see what I mean check out the sites above, especially for FEMSA and Sol. The only Sol site I could find is German, but both sites are among the best I’ve seen for alcohol products. The Introductory Video we were shown before the brewery tour was also exceptionally well done. Filled with Mexican food and beer we head further East on Mexico 2 through the small town of La Rumorosa, and on to the the Petroglyphs and cave paintings of El Vallecito Archeological Zone. The site is in a valley at around 4000-feet elevation dotted with pinyon pines and eroded granite boulders and outcrops. Many of the sites have been vandalized over the years and are now surrounded by wire fences and locked gates. To see them we are accompanied on our walking tour by a local caretaker who opens the gates……..and then uses his walking stick to search out rattlesnakes which may be resting in the rocks. Don is certainly energized by this archeological site and provides lengthy explanations on the possible significance of some of the paintings, including the fact that one of the caves has a painted man who’s eyes are lit by the rising sun during the winter solstice. He also talks at length about yoni (WARNING:This site may offend.), Sanskrit for the female vulva! Don explains how the yoni in the rocks at El Vallecito may signify that the Indians (ancestors of today's Kumeyaay) believed the area to be a place of (their) birth. Whatever the real meaning Don certainly seems quite excited by it all. There is nothing like enthusiasm for your subject! After we have seen five of the ten or so sites, and avoided contact with rattlesnakes, its back on the bus and Eastward again down the Rumorosa Grade (AKA Cantu Grade) to the desert floor. There is not a yoni to be seen, but this is still one of the most stunning visual experiences of the day. Don explains the geology as we travel down the grade, but it is hard to listen to him and take in the amazing rock structures at the same time. Essentially the rocks have weathered in place so that they are now broken into what look like piles and piles of pebbles, but on a very large scale. One of the few photographs I could find on the web (see above) does not do the scenery justice. The other fascinating aspect of the grade is the vehicle wrecks. It is easy to see how the absence of guard rails and the severity of the curves has led to these accidents. However its still alarming to look over the side of the road and see the numerous wrecks littering the step slopes. Once we are at the bottom its back up the grade to Tecate and a stop for ice-cream and then across the border at San Ysidro. I’m never particularly comfortable crossing the border back into the USA, even though I have my Australian Passport and my Resident Alien Card (Green Card). This is because I’d prefer to present just my California Driver’s License, like everyone else. Except I know that if I’m asked a question my Aussie accent will stand out…….and I’ll be asked even more questions. So its Passport and Green Card, but the guard just want to know what we bought. “Uhm, a, what’s it called?” stumbled Miranda. I blurt out “ A hammock”, and am immediately thankful that I didn’t present the Driver’s license. “I paid $25. What did you pay?” Miranda replies “$20?”and looks at me. “$22”, I’m even happier that my Driver’s License is still in my wallet. “Damn, you got a better deal than me!” And so home we go. It was a very different and diverse day of activities. I’m still not sure if it was the food, the free beer, talk of yoni, or the careening down the grade that made one member of the group motion sick! But the rest of us had a great time!

2004-05-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

Finding Fault in Downtown San Diego This little tour was led by Dr. Pat Abbott, a native San Diegan who earned his doctorate degree in geology from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Abbott is a geology professor at San Diego State University where he conducts research on the region's geologic history. He is the author of Natural Disasters published by McGraw-Hill. His book The Rise and Fall of San Diego describes the geologic history of San Diego. Abbott is also the producer and narrator for the developing TV series Written In Stone. (From the San Diego Natural History Museum web site.) The little blurb describing the tour noted that Downtown San Diego is full of faults-of the geologic kind, that is. With map in hand, search for and find the locations of fault segments mapped in recent years, and see how builders have adapted to them. Our 36-block trek will take us from the headquarters of the Police Department to PETCO Park to the U.S. Federal Courthouse and Horton Plaza. Bring a hand lens and observe and discuss Downtown, with all its faults. Saturday, May 8; 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. So a little before 8 a.m. we arrived at 14th and F streets, along with about 25 others, hand lens ready to observe any and all faults - they must be really small faults! We were to cover about a 36 block walking tour examining the sites of various know faults as well as discussing the ways and means that construction can accommodate the presence of fault lines. The region that we covered encompassed the downtown areas covered by the two orange colored segments below the San Digeo in the map here. If you open the Point Loma (3.4M) PDF file on that page you will get a good idea of the area involved in the tour and the location of the known faults. So what did we learn? Well for one thing a number of public buildings lie over known fault lines - including the police station and courthouse. In addition any private development has to consider fault lines and not build 50 feet either side of the fault. This can lead to the designing of some rather interesting footprints for bulidings. You might ask why public buildings that lie over fault lines are not subject to such conditions? Oh, and the hand lens! We used those to examine the fine structure of various rocks in mini geology lessons Pat ran as we wandered around downtown.

2004-05-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

Future Jaunts We will be returning to the 2%'ers, I guarantee it. But right now blogging is not a priority, mainly as we are not traveling. Life, at present, is focussed on improving the quality of the home environment. However I have listed below the trips, both major and minor, that are planned for the rest of the year. We'll blog each and every one. May 8 Finding Fault in Downtown. A trip organized by the San Diego Natural History Museum. May 15 Rumarosa's Round Rocks and Rock Art. Another San Diego Natural History Museum event. This one includes a visit to Tecate Brewery. Miranda and I will be joined on the two trips above by my old friend Ted Szafraniec (from Australia) as he does a trip around the world. Pity he doesn't keep a blog! May 31 - June 1 Idyllwild. Maybe we can catch up with the 2%'ers, or even the 98%'ers! June 12 Exploring Mt. San Jacinto. Yet another San Diego Natural History Museum trip. July 2-9 Connor's Family Reunion. Miranda's yearly family reunion. This time it will be held in the nation's capitol. We will extend the trip to visit President Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello, and other points of interest. September 1-8 Europe, Dresden, and Prague - and who knows what else? December 9 to after Christmas Australia. This year we will visit South Australia's Barossa Valley. We'll have plenty to say about vineyards, winemakers, and shiraz.

2004-02-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

Slicing through the Scenery It’s been at the back of my mind. Just out of reach until last Saturday. Then driving from San Diego to Idyllwild, I realized that freeways in the United States slice this country into pieces. The realization comes to you along with the momentum that you feel as you slide along at 70 mph plus, on a track that's elevated above the real world. This is not the pleasant meander along country roads that I grew up with in Australia. Its odd that this little slice of Americana came to me this last weekend. I’ve lived here since 1982. But a memory came back to me. A Greyhound bus cutting a swath from Canada to San Diego. Down the length of I-5. I was going to see the whole of the West Coast. High up in a bus, someone else driving. I’d see it all. But cement and cars was all there was. It seemed that something was out there but it was always just beyond view. So traveling to Idyllwild this last weekend was not fun! Well not at least until we turned onto the Idyllwild National Forest Highway and begin the winding climb to over 5,000 feet. That’s when we heard from the 2%’ers!

2004-01-18T18:12:00.000-08:00

Keep tuned to these pages. Its going to be a busy year. First up will be a trip to Idyllwild. Later in the year there will be a July 4th jaunt to Washington DC. In September a conference will be the excuse for a trip through London to Dresden in Germany and then a little side trip to Prague in the Czech Republic - one of the great cities of the world, well Europe anyway. And then, of course, it will Australia in December. This time flying 1st and Business class!!! That's what 125,000 miles will buy you.

2003-12-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

T’was days before New Year’s and days after Xmas, And all through the eBlog Not a character was stirring, not even the mouse We can’t have this! With the exception of the very first post I’ve not added many links to points and places of interest that were mentioned in the 2003 trip to Oz (November 21 to December 13). This was mainly because I wrote using Word and then copied and pasted into the Blogger format, and didn’t want to use up time creating links. Now that the modem and wall jacks are no longer issues I’ll go back and add as many links as I can. Just a little note: I use bSTATS which allows me to check how many hits the eBlog gets and also some info on why the site was looked at. The last one was via a Google search for “best fish and chips” “san diego”. You just never know who will track you down!

2003-12-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

Photo Update Our tour of the Swan Valley in Western Australia has been recorded by the tour operators, Swan Valley Tours. You can see the images by going here, clicking on Photo Galleries, Winery Tours and then on the tour on 9th December, 2003. Or go directly by clicking here

2003-12-22T10:42:00.000-08:00

Ye God's, so many spelling mistakes and minor errors suggest this Blog must have been written in a hurry! Fortunately most aren’t too hard to figure out. For example goal is related to football but gaol is jail, (I don’t care what type of football you play, gaol is the correct English spelling for a jail). And Bathurst is 200 not 2000 kms from Dubbo. If I get time I’ll go back and make the needed corrections, but they won’t change the Blog very much at all. If there is any thing that you want to comment on send me a note (click “Where I get mail” in the right hand column under “Where”), or click on "comments" below each post.

2003-12-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

Ah, the last post on the 2003 trip to Oz. What follows are the details of the last few days where we traveled from Perth to Sydney, and then back to San Diego. Thursday December 11, 2003 Last night at Miss Maud's. Yet another smorgasbord for breakfast! At least its popular, the place always seems to be packed. But if you're me and don't eat a lot for breakfast then its not necessarily great value. The airport shuttle should stop just up the street from Miss Maud's Swedish Hotel but when one goes sailing by as we stand curbside we have a few minutes apprehension until another arrives. The flight to Sydney is a little under 4 hours. We are shuttled into our hotel, The Harbour Rocks Hotel, at about 7pm. The hotel is housed in a heritage building which stands on the site of Sydney's first hospital. Below our window is a path known as Nurses Walk. Like most streets in The Rocks it winds its cobbled way down narrow lanes, alleyways and stairways filled with cafes, restaurants and all manner of tourist traps. The Rocks is the area of Sydney where the First Fleet, with its cargo of convicts, settled in 1788. We've stayed in this area before several years ago at The Russell Hotel which is not as historic and not as well appointed as The Harbour Rocks. As it's a cool, calm evening we take a stroll looking for a place for a late dinner and end up at The Gumnut Cafe, next door to the hotel! The seating is out in the open, providing a great opportunity to observe the nightlife. Miranda is particularly impressed by the 2 inch cockroaches which scurry up and down the trees and along the wall next to our table. We continue our walk along the western side of Circular Quay which houses the ocean liner passenger terminal. While it still has this function is also contains some very upmarket restaurants. We wanted to dine at one of these, The Quay, tomorrow night but as their famous Rack of Lamb is not on the menu we decide against making a reservation. One of the restaurants in The Rocks, The RockPool, has been voted one of the top ten in the world by several different gourmet magazines. Judging by the prices you need to be in the top ten financially to eat there. Its packed when we walk past! Friday December 12, 2003 I'm up at 9:30am which Miranda reminds me is 6:30am Perth time. At least that's what I think she grumbles from under the bedclothes! Definitely not a morning person, besides her head cold seems to be hanging on. So while I go looking for socks and yet another modem connection she sleeps in. I don't know why it is but each hotel we have stayed in has given me trouble connecting to the internet. I may have to dump these latest notes onto a CD and go in search of an Internet Cafe as the phone line I buy as a possible solution to the current problem does not solve anything. The only internet cafe we visit has zip drives but no CD drives! During the night there was some serious thunder and its spitting rain. What is it with Sydney's weather, we haven't had a full day of sunshine yet. Grumpy is wake and ready to eat when I return so we go for pancakes at Pancakes on the Rocks. Miranda has Pancakes Up North (pancakes with grilled pineapple and banana), and I have fish and chips! Open 24 hours it was, and probably still is, a great place to go for food after an Aussie pubcrawl. As we are leaving we find that my umbrella has gone missing from the pile left inside the doorway. I take one that looks like mine, probably repeating the same mistake that led to mine disappearing. Immediately I feel pity for whoever has mine as this one is not prone to collapsing for no apparent reason or turning inside out in even the slightest breeze. Fcuk! It's a Fcuk. I've always wanted something from Fcuk. The character who has my umbrella is probably expressing a similar sentiment! The afternoon is spent with Miranda getting some more rest and me catching up on the eBlog. We go for a walk so that Miranda can buy a book for the trip back to LA. Ted joins us in our room to exchange Xmas presents and share a bottle of 1998 Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shiraz, one of the Hunter Valley's earthy wines. Its apparently one of Australia's greatest wines, but I'd never heard of it until this trip. We head off for a walk around the Quay which is thronged with people, some celebrating Xmas. We also see Flying Foxes (bats) wheeling and diving over the quay. They roost in Sydney's Royal Botanical Gardens during the day and head out at night to feed. Later in the evening we see them wheeling over the towers of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Dinner is at Sailors Thai in The Rocks; Ted's treat. The dinner is excellent as is a bottle of Leeuwin Estate Semillion/Sauvignon Blanc from the Margaret River in WA. We continue to walk the Quay having coffee and pavlova opposite the piers where the harbour ferries dock. On the way back to the hotel Ted gets pooped on, we think by a bat. Its definitely a dangerous country; Miranda adds the flying fox to her list of Australian animals to be avoided! Saturday December 13, 2003 At last, a blue cloudless sky! An early breakfast at the Bakers Oven Cafe. The lack of service outside forces us inside where its easier to be seen to be starving for food. It is becoming pretty obvious that Australia still has a long way to go in providing prompt service. We are early for the shuttle bus driver who has also arrived early so that he can get a croissant from a nearly shop, his favorite breakfast. Ted is at the airport to see us off on our 12 hour and 40 minute return flight. The movies on this leg are better than the flight to Sydney. We have a choice of Seabiscuit, Swimming Pool, Mambo Italiano, SWAT, Freaky Friday, Finding Nemo, and American Pie: The Wedding. Seabiscuit is very good, a real tearjerker. Finding Nemo is cute, even though I didn't get to see the ending. Swimming Pool is also interesting, and although I get thumped on the arm for watching a movie with so much nudity, I convince Miranda to watch it. But even she can't explain what the ending scenes really mean, so I have to be satisfied with seeing Charlotte Rampling naked. Neither of us sleeps much on the flight and by the time we arrive back in San Diego we are ready for a long nap. That night its back to the airport for me to collect a visiting scientist who will stay with us for several days. The end result is a later than expected last posting on our trip due to getting even less sleep over the last few days than we got on the plane, but that is another story!

2003-12-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

OK, so I'm posting this from San Diego as we arrived home about 4 hours ago. Now I have a stable and fast internet connection! What is below is the Perth portion of the trip. I'll post the last few days in Sydney and the flight back tomorrow. Then you can all turn your computer off and get on with your lives. Sunday December 7, 2003 Today is a quiet day. I wash our clothes and work on my talk while Miranda visits Fremantle and its gaol. She sees more of our fellow train travelers. We have a late a la carte lunch at Miss Maud's, a Swedish restaurant which has Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Smorgasbords. Miranda decides we have to return for a smorgasbord. Monday December 8, 2003 Today we decide to visit the Perth Mint. On the way there in the CAT, yes you guessed it, we meet more train travelers, this time it is the couple from York who are having a great time especially as their hotel suite is larger than their new flat. The Perth Mint produces a variety of collector coins and also made the medals for the Olympics held in Sydney in 2000. We see a very impressive demonstration of the manual pouring of a gold bar. Miranda sees a bracelet that she thinks would make a very nice Christmas present from me to her. Its gold plated native flora. It is the only one left. We snap it up. And who should be at the mint but the last person we wanted to see! No its not JPY. Lunch is the smorgasbord at Miss Maud's where we discover that there is also a Miss Maud's Swedish Hotel. The cost is about the same as Sullivan's, but breakfast is a free? Right, smorgasbord! We decide to change hotels. I return to Sullivan's to inform them of our decision and then go to the conference to give my talk. Miranda, overcome with the excitement of smorgasbords for the next day and a half, goes on a shopping spree and buys Christmas presents for all our little Australian relatives. The evening is spent packing our bags for tomorrow's transfer to Miss Maud's. Tuesday December 9, 2003 We check out, store our bags and wait for the shuttle to Barrack Street Jetty and the ferry (Miss Sandalford) that will take us up the Swan River for a day of wine and food. The first part of the day is a 2 hour cruise starting with coffee/tea and a muffin, followed by a cheese plate and 4 wines; 2 each from Evans and Tate, and Figtree Winery. Fortunately a slow cruise on a calm river is all that is needed to relax me. We are then bussed to Sandalford's Caversham Estate where 8 wines are laid out before us, discussed and then we are left to taste for ourselves. I reach for the first bottle but its grabbed away and a full glass is poured by someone who looks like he really does need a drink! I finally get to taste my way through the wines but Miranda is more selective. She is saving herself for the Sandalera, a dessert wine in the style of a rich Muscat that goes for $AUS90/500ml. Fortunately we only have to pay $5 for a taste but its worth it. The rest of the wines are not particularly outstanding although they are definitely a cut above the Mudgee wines. Miranda likes the Cabernet Merlot blend. My favorite is probably the Late Harvest Verdelho/Semillion. We leave the rest of the ferry crowd swaying at Sandalford and head out with a much smaller group for a more intimate road tour run by Swan Valley Tours. First stop is Jane Brook Winery (est. 1972) where Miranda and I seem to be the only ones who taste the whole lineup. Miranda likes the Sauvignon Blanc/Semillion blend while I prefer the Back Block Shiraz. The latter comes from 70 year old vines. The chardonnay is also nice. Lunch is at Jane Brook where we learn more about our follow tourists. There is Kim the tour guide, a young Swedish couple on a late honeymoon, Norma who is originally Scottish but is now looking to establish herself as tour guide, Maree an Australian who is taking the day off from the immunology conference and on vacation from Oxford, and a Philippino girl who is related to Kim and also wants to be a tour guide. To finish lunch we are given a glass of Jane Brook White Port. This is served chilled with ice and a slice of lemon. Normally I don't like to do anything that adulterates wine, but this tastes pretty good. From Jane Brook we walk next door to Garbin Estate Wines. Here we taste our way through another 10 wines. The first of these is a Chenin Blanc which is normally a dry white wine but this one is sweet due to the presence of residual sugar. Both Maree and I notice this and as we taste more of the wines it becomes obvious that Maree has a very good palate. The next stop is Swan Valley Cheese where all the cheeses are from cow's milk. After tasting several, Miranda buys some Mature Farmhouse. Hopefully it won't mature in the same way that the cheese we bought in Sydney did in the train carriage to Perth. An icecreamery is next on the tour. This business was established by an Australian army chef who found that the icecream he made for the troops was more popular than anything else he prepared. The next stop is a visit to an Aboriginal Arts and Crafts shop, Maalinup Aboriginal Gallery, where we get a didgeridoo demonstration and a talk on aboriginal weapons. The artwork is very good here and we buy several small pieces. The last stop is The Margaret River Chocolate Company in Swan Valley established because there were none in the Swan Valley, now it does a roaring trade. Then its home to Sullivan's as part of the door-to-door service of the tour. We are told to check the SVT website for pictures of the day but when we finally get to our room at Miss Maud's I find that the connection to the phone line will require me to buy yet another phone cord. So we head out for a walk and have a pizza at Villa Rustica in Northbridge. Wednesday December 10, 2003 Breakfast is, well if you don't know by now you've just been skimming this blog. Miranda appears to be coming down with head cold; probably due to all the smorgasbord! However she braves it all to buy a pair of high heel shoes to go with latest sexy outfit and then we head off to catch the ferry to the Perth Zoo. Its only a small zoo but very open, sort of like a miniature San Diego Wild Animal Park, or Dubbo's Western Plains Zoo. We lose each other at the dingo exhibit. I think she has gone on further into the Australian Wildlife Walk and go that way but she has simply gone around the corner to get a better view of the dingoes. When I return she tells how she has been communing with the male dingo. He seems very interested in her so she has been talking to him and he's been waging his tail. I think he just wants smorgasbord and is not really worried about what form it comes in! Afternoon and evening is spent resting Miranda's head (cold), catching up on this eBlog and packing for the midday flight back to Sydney tomorrow. Just before bed I notice a hidden phone connection that allows me to post the details of the train trip to the eBlog.

2003-12-10T15:39:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the length of this update but a change in hotels in Perth has meant that things are even slower than I expected. Wednesday December 3, 2003 Today is the beginning of the big trip. Lorna and Jack (Aunt and Uncle) and Ni and Chris and their children Michaela and Zack see us off on our QANTAS flight to Sydney. A brief shuttle drive gets us to Sydney’s Central Rail Station where we have to wait for several hours before we are allowed to board the Indian Pacific for the trip to Perth. After a brief ceremony by the on-board staff on the platform we are directed to berths 7 and 8 in carriage L. Our own little cabin with toilet and washbasin (fortunately as separate bowls) that pop out from the wall of the smallest bathroom I’ve ever been in! We are surprised to learn that this is the Christmas trip of the Indian Pacific. Besides Santa Claus the train is also carrying the aging Australian Rock star John Paul Young famous for the song “Love is in the Air”. We keep looking at every face to see if we can recognize JPY. The train departs at 2:55pm and we settle into our cabin and wait for the 6:30pm reception where we get, over blue champagne, to introduce ourselves to all the other passengers in Gold Kangaroo Service who have selected the second meal seating. Our (8:00pm) dinner seating is called Moonlight and Miranda is delighted to see Heidi at (actually under) the table opposite. Heidi is Ernie’s Labrador guide dog and she is driven by an overwhelming desire for food. However Murray the head waiter makes the public announcement that we can pet her when she is not on the harness, but she must not be fed at any time. Ernie slips her titbits from time to time. The first day of train travel goes from Sydney to Parkes with a stop at Bathurst for Santa and JPY to get off and greet and sing with the local school children who line the platform and wave at us as we pass. We aren’t allowed to get off to witness the big event and no singing is heard, but expectations are high that we will see JPY later in the trip. Rain began to fall as we crossed the Blue Mountains, but appears to fade later in the evening. When I wake at around 3am the sky is starlight except for the distant horizon which glows regularly with lightening bursts. Thursday December 4, 2003 Today the train goes from Condobolin in NSW to Spenser Junction in SA. Nice clear day but the recent storms have dropped quite a lot of water. The countryside changes from red earth and scattered gumtrees to low lying scrub. It changes to rolling hills and wheat fields and some vineyards as we approach Adelaide, and then back through the spectrum to red earth and low scrub as we head towards WA. Several kangaroos and a solitary emu are spotted. Yesterday Jos (Maitre d') learnt that we are on our way to the Immunology conference in Perth and he told us that another passenger is doing the same. This morning at the 6:30am pre-breakfast snack he brings Felicity to our table. (It seems like a major aim of the staff is to bring people together during their trip – they seem to be continually making introductions.) Felicity works at Sydney’s Centenary Institute run by Tony Basten – one of the reviewers of my PhD thesis many years ago. (A little name dropping in Immunology circles doesn’t hurt.) The reason for the early snack is to fortify us for a bus trip around Broken Hill, one of Australia’s great mining towns reflected in street names like Ore and Crystal. However the train is late and we have a shortened tour (fortunately at reduced cost) the feature of which is a trip to the (Royal) Flying Doctor Service base and hangers. This is the only mode of medical attention for vast regions of the Australian outback. We learn that many places have a medical kit supplied by the Service free of charge and available to all who need it. It’s a large box that seems to be filled with everything you might need, except snake anti-venom which is about the only thing you might need. More on snakes later! Murray (Head Waiter), knowing that Miranda is a veterinarian, brings Ernie and Heidi to our table for breakfast. While Heidi spends most of her time sniffing at the napkin in my lap for crumbs, at least that’s what I think she’s doing, Ernie tells us his life story. By the time he’s finished I have drool over a good part of one trouser leg, and I didn’t feed her a thing. Ernie is English (although born in India) and trained as a blacksmith before WWII when he joined a Light Horse division, only to have it become mechanized a few months later. Because of his knowledge of Urdu (the language taught to Indians and Pakistanis soldiers so they can communicate) he is sent to Burma with the Gurkhas, wounded and sent back to England. He ended up at Woomera (rocket testing range) in the Australian outback and finally retired in Adelaide. During the meal we are joined by an Emeritus Professor of Linguistics from University of Michigan and he and Ernie briefly converse in Urdu. Yesterday evening Jos had asked whether anyone would like to give a 10 minute talk to the passengers on some interesting topic of Australian life and Miranda offers to lecture on the dangers of Australian wildlife. Titling her talk “If I was Born in Australia I’d be Dead by Now” she gives the gathered throng a humorous thumbnail sketch of various venomous species. Part of her talk is based on a report in the Flying Doctor newsletter of the efforts required to save the life of a man bitten by a King Brown snake (highly venomous) while he slept. Questions or comments are entertained at the end and a gentleman gets up to say that there are no dangerous creatures in Australia. He knows because he’s been here since 1961 and has never had any problems. I recognize him as the “true blue Aussie battler” who at yesterdays’ introductions was at great pains to make sure we all knew he is English and that England just beat Australia in the Ruby World Cup. We Australians have a name for this type of person “a Whingeing Pom” (Sorry Roger and Joyce, but some country’s do have ‘em). Immediately Murray jumps to Miranda’s defense and tells us his story of unprovoked brown snake attack, as do several others. (Note: After we reach Perth every newspaper we open up has a different story of unprovoked snake attack!) After the talk Miranda is thanked for her interesting talk by “Bruce”, an Engineer and marketing supervisor for the Canadian Railroad and a real train enthusiast. We have lunch with him and the Emeritus Linguist Professor. At some point the conversation turns to Israel and Palestine with the Professor supporting the Palestinians and “Bruce” as the son of holocaust survivors providing a somewhat different point of view. All is saved when we are asked whether we want coffee and Miranda and I turn the conversation toward short blacks, long blacks, and flat whites. Politics and racism are just not suitable topics during First Class train travel! We are given a bus tour of Adelaide later in the day. Adelaide is Australia’s only really planned city. The streets of the city proper are all straight and the city is surrounded by parkland which was to serve as a buffer to allow defense of the city in the 19th century. There are many fine old buildings and Miranda is quite taken with the place. This is not a universal feeling as at dinner we meet Anthony, a South African, who is moving himself from Adelaide to Perth. Friday December 5, 2003 Today the train travels from Bookaloo in SA to Stewart in WA. The country here is seriously flat, red and devoid of visible wildlife, except for pairs of wedgetailed eagles that spiral the open bush. There must be something down there! Later in the day we see several herds of horses, whether they are wild is hard to say as we also see cattle. Others even see wild camels which are not native but were introduced along with camel drivers from Afghanistan. At breakfast we meet a Swiss school teacher and her husband. She has been in Australia for several months. The first month was to improve her English and now they are traveling around the country. During the train trip we met several Europeans and they all are taking a month or more to tour Australia. Well, it is a big country! A highlight of this part of the trip is a visit to Cook. Inhabitants 2; the station master and his wife. There used to be a thriving railworker community here but when the line passed from public to private hands there was significant downsizing! So now almost all the houses are empty and the swimming pool is dry. The only constant is that the golf course still doesn’t have any grass. When we enter the little tourist shop it is packed and there is an in depth conversation going on. It turns out that several “journos” are taping a Q and A with the stationmaster’s wife. I doubt the poor woman sold a thing to the several hundred passengers while the train was in Cook. Sometimes journalists should be seen and not heard! I’m beginning to think that JPY isn’t providing these people with enough interest. He’s certainly not providing us with much excitement either as he is supposed to perform for us here in Cook. But we have to be satisfied with a photo of Miranda with Santa. Lunch is with a retired couple from York, England who have been visiting their children in Australia. They have been looking for kangaroos but haven’t seen any. Later in the day I watch for several hours and seen about a dozen ‘roos and numerous cattle, and also miles and miles of nothing but flat earth with the occasional scraggly bush. Conversation can bring out interesting comparisons. Now retired the York couple has moved from their bungalow to a much smaller flat and have throw away many things including family photographs, a decision they now regret. When the recent fires in Southern California were threatening us last month the first thing packed into our cars was our photographs. Oh, a comment on the food. Our lunch choice today is a Swagman’s Lunch which is a sausage, a thin slice of beef, small damper (bush bread) and some veg. Hmmm, this is supposed to be First Class isn’t it? So why are we eating such a tasteless meal? While this lunch is not typical the big disappointment of the trip is the poor quality of the food. At least the wines, such as Wynns Coonawarra Shiraz Cabernet, are very good. And I guess we aren’t as disappointed as train buff “Bruce” who arrived at Sydney’s Central Train Station for his trip across Australia in a coat and tie, only to find the carriages populated by characters like me in T-shirts and jeans! The Linguistics Professor joins us for dinner. We have a real sunset during the meal and the dining carriage is directly opposite a small mob of ‘roos when the train has to stop. During dinner we also get to quiz the head waiter, Lindley, about the whereabouts of JPY. As Lindley is part of the crew change that occurred in Adelaide he assures us that he did see JPY perform on the platform while we toured the city. When we returned we did see the small sound stage being dismantled, as we did in Broken Hill. However we remain skeptical. Toward the end of the meal Miranda checks on why Heidi is licking and nibbling at her feet and offers advice to Ernie about allegies. I diagnose it as just her usual hunger! At about 9pm we arrive at Kalgoorlie and are taken on a bus trip to see the Superpit Gold mine which is Australia’s largest open pit mine. Our female bus driver proudly tells us that the truck drivers in the pit are all women. She also takes us to see Hay Street which has 3 active, and legal, brothels, one of which is managed by one of her old school chums who used to be Harry and is now the same sex as the truck drivers. As we tour around the sky is filled with lightening flashes and it looks like we are in for rain on the way into Perth. Saturday December 6, 2003 Breakfast is with “Bruce” and a women who is on her way to live in Perth. It certainly seems to be a popular place! The track runs along the River Avon, which later turns into the Swan River. The Avon is the site of a yearly whitewater race of over 100 kms which ends just upstream of the city. We reach Perth at about 10:30am. A school Choir is there to sing Christmas carols, and presumably JPY is supposed to put in an appearance, but we have to leave in a shuttle bus to tour the city before heading to our hotel. Was JPY on the train? I guess we’ll never know. Lindley told us that JPY is a little fellow, so maybe we weren’t looking close enough to the ground. At least they gave us a poster to remember his absence by. The tour of Perth lasts several hours and covers much of the city and its surroundings including a stop at the Kings Park Botanical Gardens where Miranda buys a poster of venomous snakes; this is starting to become a little bit of an obsession! The driver drops us at our respective hotels. The most impressive stop is at St George’s College where the entrance is marked by a Flame tree which is covered in brilliant red flowers. Even though I’m not a tree person I make particular note of this as St George’s is where I’ll have to register for the conference tomorrow. Our hotel, Sullivans, is quite small although our room is quite large and offers a great view of the city skyline. Its even on the same street as St George’s, Mounts Bay Road, which turns out to be more than just a little busy with traffic. We catch the free CAT (which I believe stands for Central Area Transport) bus to downtown Perth and walk around city. I never see anyone I know when I’m out and about in San Diego but in minutes we see the couple from Switzerland and the Linguistics Professor. Maybe all the people we’re seeing in downtown Perth were on the train? Dinner that night is at Burswood Resort and Casino, but we refrain from gambling mainly because the games appear to be nothing like those is Las Vegas.

2003-12-07T04:59:00.000-08:00

Thursday November 27, 2003 A beautiful clear Australian summer day. We check out of our room at the Best Western Blue Diamond Motel which is just one block from a house that once belonged to my grandparents and then my Uncle Leo. Now it’s part of the business district of Dubbo. Our first stop on the way to wine country is Wellington. Originally a penal settlement in 1823, it was soon occupied by pioneer farmers. Neither are in view when we stop to have lunch at the Cactus Café. Housed in a 1930’s building which has been a church and a school house, this café was opened by Mexico’s Ambassador to Australia. Two sets of concertina doors, which used to separate the single space into class rooms, now partially divide the room into the café and two areas filled with local crafts for sale. On the way to Mudgee, which is higher in altitude than Dubbo, the countryside changes from low undulating hills of red earth (Dubbo means “red earth” in aboriginal) and wheat farms to the rolling forested hills that surround Mudgee (“a nest in the hills”). As this trip is essentially unplanned we call at the Mudgee Visitor Center to see what accommodations are available, only to learn that we have arrived just before the annual weekend of music concerts. We are saved by “Barb” who is visiting the staff of the Visitor Center and runs several B and B’s. Soon we have the keys to “Bellmore”, a renovated house built in the 1920-1930’s in a style reminiscent of Arts and Crafts houses of California. Miranda and I get the front bedroom with a bed that occupies 80% of the room and is about 4 feet off the floor – fortunately each side of the bed has a set of steps. As we only have a few hours of the day left we decide to drive to the Blue Wren Vineyard to make reservations at their restaurant as Chris has been told the food is “excellent”. Of course we taste their wines – all of them! I come away hoping that the food will be better. We have time for one more vineyard so we do down the road to Pieter van Gent’s where we also taste all the wines. This is no small achievement as the wines range from dry red and whites to fortified wines and several specialty wines, one of which flavored with vermouth. A number of the wines are very good and we purchase some dry sherry and port for the trip to Perth and some others for relatives in Dubbo. However we don’t find anything suitable for the evening meal and scour a Mudgee wine shop, buying an additional 6 bottles. Upon returning to Bellmore we find that Barb has stocked the little house with everything needed for a hearty Australian breakfast, as well as a bottle of Andrew Harris Verdelho. This is immediately consumed with cheese, crackers and olives. Dinner at the Blue Wren is very good and even though Karlyn won’t approve when she reads this my meal consists of Thumper (Rillettes of wild rabbit with pickled onions and cucumbers served with crusty bread) and Bambi (Melrose Park (Mudgee) Venison, with a warm bean, hazelnut and radicchio salad). However each dish is accompanied by a vegetarian side dish, Tempus Two Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2003 with the rabbit and Henschke Keyneton Estate Shiraz/Cabernet/Merlot 2000 with the venison. Deciding to make use of the shuttle to take us to and from the restaurant turns out to be a wise choice. Friday November 28, 2003 Breakfast consists of pretty much anything you want. Miranda makes scrambled eggs in bacon fat with lemon myrtle in an attempt to reproduce some of the excellent eggs we had in Sydney. She succeeds! The day is filled with wine tasting, although its unlikely we will visit all 29 cellar doors. The first vineyard is Botobolar and their organic wines. Pleasant wines that are not my style but we spend an enjoyable hour talking with the owner who is a transplant from Chicago. Subsequently we taste at Huntington, known for their shiraz but we find the best sweet white of the visit. Abercorn has award wining wines which are quite good – their top Shiraz Cabernet is the only wine which you must pay to taste but the only available bottle has been open for 10 days, so we get a free taste and its still a quality wine. Miranda is more impressed that the only other visitors have a black standard poodle but it is so harassed by the vineyard dogs that they leave. Maybe they were visiting because they too had noticed that the vineyard advertising has a white poodle in it. Unfortunately its away with the owners. Peterson’s vineyard has one of the few zinfandels in the region and a taste tells us why. Lunch is out in the open at Poet’s Corner (formerly Craigmoor Vineyards). This is followed by a visit to Red Clay Vineyards which is the smallest vineyard in the Mudgee area. The wines here are made using a basket press as the grape yields are too small for more modern techniques. The new wine maker for Andrew Harris vineyards who has just come from several years with Kendall-Jackson in Napa is at Red Clay tasting their wines. Like most Mudgee wines they are well made but without real distinction. The next stop is a diversion from wines as we visit Figtree Retreat Olives to taste their produce and get a small tour of the farm and discuss their biodynamic (sustainable) agriculture. Its certainly rustic as upon arrival we find the owner using natures’ toilet off his verandah! Miranda buys the Fig and Olive Tapenade and the rock salt cured (tsassos) olives. The last vineyard is Andrew Harris where we again taste all the range and again the reds all taste very similar to me. Some of the whites like the verdelho are much more distinctive and well structured. Dinner that night is in Mudgee in the courtyard of The Wineglass Café. More Bambi is consumed, this time in the form of sausages. Saturday November 29, 2003 After an early breakfast we head back to Dubbo the see Ni and Chris’s son Zac play schoolboy cricket where his team wins a little too convincingly - 168 to 5!! The rest of the day is spent walking around downtown Dubbo. Sunday November 30, 2003 Today we visit the Western Plains Zoo where we take a self guided walking tour to burn off the excesses of the previous few days. Like sensible Australians the kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and dingos are all resting in the shade. Everyone else seems to be active, except for the Maned Wolf. Later we visit the Red Earth Winery, one of the 4 local wineries. They might sell more wine here if they actually gave you a reasonable amount to taste. As it is the few milliliters we get leaves a negative impression except for the wines we are shown from another winery bottled under the “Naked Lady” label. Miranda remains unconvinced that it’s the wine I appreciate! In the afternoon we visit my mother’s grave site where I see her grave stone for the first time. We leave fresh flowers at her graveside and at her brother Don’s graveside. That evening we BBQ beef, pork and chicken sausages and the last of my mother’s chutney at Ni and Chris’s farm outside Dubbo. Bottles of Shiraz from Botobolar and Abercorn are compared and leave me hoping that the wines of Western Australia will satisfy the palate more. Monday December 1, 2003 Today Miranda and I take my aunt Lorna to visit her sister Leone in a nursing home in nearby Narromine. Dementia is slowly taking her memory and she takes a few minutes to recognize me, however she knows Miranda even though they have only met once before. Underneath her disease she still retains her sense of humor We return to Dubbo for lunch at the Olive Garden Café and Nursery. This is followed by shopping at Grace Bros where the lady helping Miranda tells her how much she loves her accent. Miranda buys a “sophisticated” black and white chiffon dress over a black and white polka dot slip. That evening we dine at Jules Café where the waitress is unsure whether we can share a meal of crepes. Its not the sort of service we are used to receiving and when we discover that the table we have near the front door is actually holding the door open we are ready to leave. However we tough it out and finally receive a single plate of two crepes and two empty plates that allows us to share what is a meal that neither of us could have eaten alone. The serving sizes of meals in Australia appear to following the trend in the US, where the increasing obesity is being blamed, in part, on the increasing size of meals. Tuesday December 2, 2003 Another day of traveling. This time we take Lorna to Bathurst (about 200 kms southwest of Dubbo) to see some the homes lived in by my mother’s family. Bathurst is Australia’s oldest inland city and boasts many fine buildings. Lorna shows us my great grandfather’s house which is apparently heritage listed it appears close to collapse. We also visit with my Aunt Joyce who is enjoying life in a very pleasant retirement home. Lunch is at the Crowded House Café where the sausages are burnt to perfection. As usual Miranda is disgusted! After we returned to Dubbo we visit the Returned Soldiers League (RSL) where gambling has long been legal in many Australian cities. This brief visit is followed by a very good dinner at the Thai Restaurant. Asian food in Australia is very good and restaurants very common.

2003-11-29T02:55:00.000-08:00

I told you this would be intermittent service, so why are you always checking back when nothing has been added? Yes I know news has been REALLY delayed, but I’m on vacation, and I’m having a good time, so at least I have an excuse. Sunday November 23, 2003 We arrived into Sydney at little after 9am after very close to 14 hours at 38000 ft. Very little to report about the flight. QANTAS appears to be suffering cutbacks – no more printed menus in Economy, or hot towels to clean face and hands, or even staff to ensure speedy meal delivery. But the individual video monitors and the 6 movie selections plus prerecorded TV shows enhance expectations. However movies like The Hulk and Lara Croft are real let downs. Fortunately sleep is not at a premium and we arrived into Sydney refreshed. The only distraction is having to pass through the Duty Free shop on the way to Customs and Immigration. Talk about blatant commercialism! My old friend Ted was there to meet us in Arrivals and help us recover from the aftermath of the furor over a knife in Miranda’s luggage which caused the Australian security services to go into panic mode. The fact that they failed to find in on a second pass through the x-ray machines seemed to resolve everyone’s fears of a (veterinary) terrorist attack on Australia – even though the knife was still there! We finally made our way through the rain to the 21st floor of the Marriott Renaissance over looking the harbor and the Opera House. (I wish we could show you a picture of the view.) The rest of the day was taken up with a wet and windy lunch at the Café in the Sydney Botanical Gardens with Ted, Ann (an old workmate) and her husband Geoff and their children. Walking back to the hotel through the rain was not a fun experience. We were in bed by 7pm! Monday November 24, 2003 First thing to do today, buy umbrellas! Fortunately a convenience store across the street from the hotel has several different types for sale. Then it was on to The Grace Hotel (Miranda’s favorite) for a breakfast of banana glazed pancakes, and scrambled eggs on toast with bacon – and coffee! After some window shopping in the QVB (Queen Victoria Building) the Sydney monorail serves as transport to Darling Harbor and the Chinese Gardens. Discovering a duckling paddling madly around the outside moat that is part of the garden lake was sufficient reason for Miranda to pay the entrance fee. Although we found his family resting by the side of the lake it was only after we exited the gardens that we discovered the family had reunited! The gardens, a gift from the Chinese people, are very well planned with many pathways and water features that are well stocked with very large Koi. After a walk through the park and water features of Darling Harbor we lunched at an Indian restaurant - Zaaffran - over looking the harbor. The intermittent wind and rain drives us into a picture theatre were we see Clint Eastwood’s tension filled “Mystic River”. Oddly appropriate for the oppressive weather. Tuesday November 25, 2003 Blue sky! There are still some clouds. But it’s looking more like Sydney in summer; the harbor is green-blue, busy with ferries and the Opera House white. Well, OK, a sort dull cream, but it still stands out as the major landmark in one of the world’s largest harbors. We breakfast at one of the many eateries on Circular Quay and watch as the rest of Sydney comes and goes to work by ferry and train. The most important thing to do today is have the laptop tested. We learn that the modem card is faulty, and so a replacement is purchased. Its installed later in the hotel room. It works! I can post a brief note warning of the delays that look like plaguing this eBlog. The rest of the morning is occupied by a visit to Dymock’s for a book or two for the train trip to Perth. In the afternoon Miranda decides we should take the ferry to Balmain, one of the older inner city suburbs. Balmain boasts (expensive) terrace housing, narrow streets and Dawn Fraser (one of Australia’s most famous Olympic swimmers), and today rain showers. The evening is devoted to eating at Edna’s Table. We have been to this restaurant once before and are eager to again taste “flavors which are indigenous” to Australia. Ted has made a reservation for 6:30pm which makes us the first to be seated. The menu is extensive and features both the usual (fish, lamb, lobster, beef) and the unusual (wallaby, emu, crocodile) paired with native foods which add mouth watering flavors to the most ordinary of meats. My main course of Roasted Lamb Rump stuffed with Leaks, Oven Dried Tomatoes, River Mint Pesto and Parsnip Gallette is simply wonderful, especially the tomatoes. That’s the secret of Edna’s Table, the most intense flavors can come from the most innocent looking morsel on your plate. Miranda’s Chargrilled Fillet of Kangaroo, Potato and Candlenut Mash, Beetroot Jam, and Sangiovese Glaze is equally tasty, at least according to her. The small amount I taste is so rare that I keep thinking the rest of it will hop off her plate and make its escape down Clarence Street. Ted goes for a meal of sausages made from those Aussie stalwarts of emu, kangaroo and duck. Brand’s Coonawarra Cabernet goes well with everything. The only disappointment is the lack of staff which slows service to a crawl as the tables fill, and dessert takes too long to reach us and then looks like it was dropped on the way to our table. Oh well, life wasn’t meant to be perfect. Wednesday November 26, 2003 The morning is spent packing our bags and booking out of the hotel. My cousin Ian collects us for lunch, but before that he takes us on a small detour through the southern suburbs so Miranda can see up close what she has only seen before from the air – blue bays, vast white sand beaches and miles and miles of red tiled roof houses. Ian “shouts” us lunch at a restaurant called Le Sands on the beach at Botany Bay. The best fish and chips I’ve had in years! Later in the afternoon we board a twin engine QANTAS flight to Dubbo. Its only about an hour flight, but we get a small snack, complimentary wine, and tea or coffee! Why is it that local QANTAS flights have improved their service while international flights have reduced theirs? A bunch of relies (that’s relatives to you non-Aussies) are at the airport to meet, greet and get us to our motel, and then take us home for a “barbie” and a bottle or two of good Aussie wine. More important is the absolute lack of rain, even the clouds are gone by evening. Ngaire (pronounced ni-ree)(cousin) and her husband Chris suggest that they take a few days vacation and take us to the nearby wine country of Mudgee. We hadn’t planned for this but it’s a very welcome plan as Miranda hasn’t seen much of the Mudgee wines and I haven’t been there for more than 20 years.

2003-11-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

You might be asking yourselves, where is all the news? Well it would be on this page if the laptop hadn't developed modem card problems. We were able to get a new one yesterday (25th) and get it working. That makes three modems in as many years for this computer. Later today, after we arrive in Dubbo, I'll add what's been happening over the last few days. So far its been wet and busy (vacations always are with Miranda) but the meal last night more than made up for it (Chargrilled Wallaby wrapped around Enoki Mushrooms, Baked Shitake Mushrooms, Oyster Sauce - yum!). More later.

2003-11-21T10:13:00.000-08:00

The hours are counting down! The trip will begin with an evening flight from the San Diego Airport Commuter Terminal at 8:30pm to LAX, 2-3 hours of lay-over and then its "all aboard" a QANTAS jet at around 11:45pm. We should be in Sydney at 9am on Sunday, after having crossed the international dateline. I'll post movie reviews - they'll probably be Miranda's impressions because I'll be asleep! I was hoping to be able to provide digital images over the next few weeks, but at present BLOGGER is not allowing subscribers to upgrade their service. Hopefully I will be able to upgrade during the next few weeks so that I can dump images onto my laptop harddrive and then post them here. Without the upgrade the only way for me to put images on this blog is to put them on a web site and then link to them here. My (unfinished) site at Geocities does not seem to be able to do that and its a long process to get images onto that site anyway - guess why its still unfinished two years later?. But rest assured I will get images onto this page if its possible.

2003-11-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

Two days to go! Two days before we Quaint-ass our way from San Diego, California to Sydney, Australia. Its something like 12 to 14 hours - well 4 movies anyway - from LA to SYD. Flying through the night to the Land Down Under and one of the great cities of the world. There will be more to report in the days ahead..................... The Sights of Sydney Wine and Food Dubbo (Birthplace) and the Central West Sydney to Perth on the Indian Pacific The 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Society for Immunology (What? Did you think this would be all work and no play? West Australian Wine Homeward Bound - back to the land of the septic tank's ...................All that and maybe more in less than 25 days, then we'll see where this blog really goes!